72 villages in Kulob zone of Khatlon province do not have electricity.

Four years ago, the village of Safedband in the Muminobod district did not have electricity.  The residents did not wait for mercy of local authorities and bought solar storage batteries.  They now have electricity.  

According to Davlatnazar Kholov, the head of the Kulob electricity supply network (Shabakahoi Barqi Kulob), says the number of villages without electricity has decreased over the past three years from 102 to 72. 

According to him, these villages are mostly located in mountain areas of Shamsiddin-Shohin, Baljuvon, Khovaling, Muminobod and Temourmalik districts.

“These villages are not large.  The largest of them has 30 households,” Kholov said.  

During the Soviet time, residents of these villages were resettled to plains, but after collapse of the Soviet Union descendants of settlers began to return to their native villages.  Thus such villages with small population were formed.   

Authorities reportedly do not have funds to bring electricity to these villages.  Kholov says these villages are located more than ten kilometers far from the electricity transmission lines.  

Local authorities hope that some international organization or local entrepreneurs will pay attention to them.  

However, Davlatnazar Kholov does not consider settlements, to which electricity is not supplied, “the villages without electricity." 

According to him, almost all of them have alternative sources of electricity such as solar storage batteries, generators and micro hydropower plants, which supply electricity to at least two or three families.  

Meanwhile, Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national integrated power company) has developed a project aimed at supplying electricity to the village of Mulukoni, which is located 25 kilometers far from the administrative center of the Sarikhosor jamoat in the Baljuvon district.  With implementation of this project many villages in the Baljuvon district will receive electricity.

According to the Kulob electricity supply network, the project being implemented by international financial institutions can improve the electricity supply situation in border areas.  A total cost of the project is 22 million U.S. dollars.   The project reportedly provides for improving the electricity supply situation in 80 villages of Shamsiddin-Shohin, Hamadoni and Farkhor districts.  Besides, about 30 villages will receive electricity for the first time.